In the future, self-driving cars may become the norm on roads rather than the subject of promising reports from the tech industry's leading companies. What first seemed impossible has now progressed into the realm of believability. A similar evolution is happening in the legal industry and, while the rate of change may seem slower in law than in tech, the legal industry isn't far behind. Not long ago, law firms were the go-to providers of legal advice. Today, alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) like Deloitte are competing for the same clients as law firms--and winning.

Hundreds of schoolchildren have been drafted in to make Amazon's Alexa devices in China as part of a controversial and often illegal attempt to meet production targets, documents seen by the Guardian reveal. Interviews with workers and leaked documents from Amazon's supplier Foxconn show that many of the children have been required to work nights and overtime to produce the smart-speaker devices, in breach of Chinese labour laws. According to the documents, the teenagers – drafted in from schools and technical colleges in and around the central southern city of Hengyang – are classified as "interns", and their teachers are paid by the factory to accompany them. Teachers are asked to encourage uncooperative pupils to accept overtime work on top of regular shifts. Some of the pupils making Amazon's Alexa-enabled Echo and Echo Dot devices along with Kindles have been required to work for more than two months to supplement staffing levels at the factory during peak production periods, researchers found.

A US federal appeals court has rejected Facebook's effort to undo a class action lawsuit alleging it illegally collected and stored biometric data for millions of users without their consent using facial recognition technology. The 3-0 decision from the ninth US circuit court of appeals in San Francisco exposes the company to billions of dollars in potential damages paid out to the Illinois users who brought the case. The decision came as the social media company faces broad criticism from American politicians, lawmakers and regulators over its privacy practices. Last month, Facebook agreed to pay a record $5bn (£4bn) fine to settle a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) data privacy investigation. "This biometric data is so sensitive that if it is compromised, there is simply no recourse," Shawn Williams, a lawyer for plaintiffs in the class action, said in an interview.

The difficulty in auditing financial AIs increases in direct proportion to the complexity of the decisions they are making; as neural networks are increasingly tasked with everything from auditing accounts to predicting fraud, their inner workings are becoming more opaque. It may be difficult for the FCA to gain access to the necessary information to regulate AI; the secret behind an AI's decision-making process is often part of its Intellectual Property which makes companies reluctant to open them to external scrutiny.

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said Thursday that Facebook users in Illinois can sue the company over its use of facial recognition technology. The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said Thursday that Facebook users in Illinois can sue the company over its use of facial recognition technology. A U.S. court has ruled that Facebook users in Illinois can sue the company over face recognition technology, meaning a class action can move forward. The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued its ruling on Thursday. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, it's the first decision by a U.S. appellate court to directly address privacy concerns posed by facial recognition technology.

NEW YORK – A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected Facebook Inc.'s effort to undo a class action lawsuit claiming that it illegally collected and stored biometric data on millions of users without their consent. The 3-0 decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco over Facebook's facial recognition technology exposes the company to billions of dollars in potential damages to the Illinois users who brought the case. It came as the social media company faces broad criticism from lawmakers and regulators over its privacy practices. Last month, Facebook agreed to pay a record $5 billion fine to settle a Federal Trade Commission data privacy probe. "This biometric data is so sensitive that if it is compromised, there is simply no recourse," Shawn Williams, a lawyer for plaintiffs in the class action, said in an interview.

In this episode, we're joined by Alex Lakatos, a litigation partner at Mayer Brown in Washington, DC. Alex is an example of a successful attorney at a thriving firm who is pushing himself to become an expert in the brand new area of artificial intelligence in financial services, lending, and credit. Alex organizes and speaks on AI in financial services symposia and events and discusses regulation of new AI technologies, AI-bias and the liability flowing from it, and how attorneys will interact with and shape AI in the near future.

Artificial intelligence is predicting the outcome of court cases about human rights violations. This adds to the growing role of AI in law. From next year, robot judges are set to be introduced in small claims courts in Estonia to moderate disputes of less than €7,000. In the US, algorithms are being used in sentencing decisions, and lawyers also use AI to analyse texts to answer legal questions and identify relevant past court case decisions.

Following the horrific mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton over the weekend, President Trump has called on private enterprises, particularly social media companies, to develop new tools for surfacing "red flags" that could help identify violent shooters before they act. Trump says these tools could enable the government to act earlier to prevent mass casualties. With the current state of AI technology and the ongoing negligence of social media platforms to protect human life, this simply isn't a feasible idea. Predictive algorithms are hard to make. For simple, basic algorithms to make predictions, they need a lot of data.

Dr. Nick Taylor -- Co-Founder & CEO -- UnmindLauren Kunze -- CEO -- PandorabotsKhaliya -- Mental Health Futurist, Neuro-technologist, Co-founder Falkora & Tell Your Story -Rich Pierson -- CEO & Co-Founder -- HeadspaceDr.